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Re: Just how many american bee colonies have been killed by neonics?

Originally Posted by gmcharlie

... large scale guy... " that idiot had AFB in every hive we tested"..

VERY alarming -professional has AFB in every hive!????? Very unprofessional and compromise the whole industry! Couple of things:
- neonics have a chronic effect, it kills slowly. It is possible, that something (including neonics) made bees weak and than they got AFB
= Inspector would not detect death from neonics because they are not told to do so. When they will be instructed - may be they will do it...

Re: Just how many american bee colonies have been killed by neonics?

No, you do what France does - second largest exporter of agricultural products in the world - after the USA.
If you visit the French countrysides you will not see vast industrial-farming monocultures stretching the horizon. You will see tens of thousands of relatively small-scale family farms on which millions of people earn a good living and have a great lifestyle, producing the finest food in the world (according to the Cordon Bleu chefs of the world). The French have fought to preserve small-scale, family-run, mixed farming. Many French farmers will have a hundred acres of corn, a hundred acres of sunflowers or canola, a fruit orchard business, some cows, chickens, horses. The landscape is rich and diverse; the rivers are full of trout (I can vouch for that) there are vineyards all over the place. But the French 'work to live' unlike us poor Anglo Saxons, who only 'live to work'.

Here is a slideshow of my visit to the Dordogne a couple of years back. If you enjoy good food, local wines, fabulous landscapes and lots of wildlife, this is a great place for a vacation. Check it out:

I visited Riberac in the Dordogne two years ago - a small town of maybe 3,000 people. The market, as in every small town made you wish you had been born a Frenchman. In the central square, they do not have a giant Walmart or Costo - they have: 100 kinds of local cheeses produced on 100 different farms; a honey stall selling an astonishing range of wild-flower honeys: lavender, forest flowers, chestnut, heather, clover etc. I will post something on the general Forum if the Moderator will allow. it might give you all a nice insight into life in 'La Belle France'. Here's a taster, this woman had a stall selling about 6 kinds of honey from her own bees, none of it was from cultivated crops - apart from the Lavender. She also sold Mead which was superb - and many glasses were hoisted around the fire in the evenings:

We later sat in a green meadow by the river and watched the trout and dragonflies while the cows grazed nearby.
To my amazement, the meadow was full of wild Bee Orchids like the one below. I have never, ever seen a Bee Orchid in the UK in my entire life, they have been sprayed out of existence over here - but the French like their pastures unsprayed and they prefer Bee Orchids to 0.0001% more on the balance sheet. Similarly, dragonflies and damselfliesm which were common in my childhood in England, are now pretty rare; in most arable crop areas they are extinct.

Bee Orchid in a French Cow Pasture: the flower has evolved to look like a female bumblebee (to a male anyway)

Re: Just how many american bee colonies have been killed by neonics?

I do not understand, what is the problem with import? It seems to me that USA is a largest importer: everything in Target made in China, fruits in supermarket - Mexico, Argentina etc. Somebody at the Forum stated that US also imported something like half needed honey..

The point regarding French was that its agriculture is doing remarkably well after 10 years of banning neonics... it is speaking for itself.

Re: Just how many american bee colonies have been killed by neonics?

Originally Posted by cerezha

I do not understand, what is the problem with import? It seems to me that USA is a largest importer: everything in Target made in China, fruits in supermarket - Mexico, Argentina etc. Somebody at the Forum stated that US also imported something like half needed honey..

The point regarding French was that its agriculture is doing remarkably well after 10 years of banning neonics... it is speaking for itself.